The food was amazing overall, although I thought the pork chop was overpriced for what you…read morereceived. Our waitress did a good job and was friendly throughout the meal. There was a very large party that had taken over the entire patio during our visit, so I completely understand why the kitchen and service may have been slower than usual. The frustrating part was the seating process. There were several open tables, but customers weren't being seated very quickly. We were a party of two, and the table we eventually sat at was empty for about 20 minutes before we were seated. There may have been a perfectly good reason for the delay, but nothing was explained to us. Once we were seated, the food was worth the wait. I would definitely recommend making a reservation and giving yourself plenty of time, especially if you're visiting during a busy evening. The building itself is also worth mentioning. The inside has a fun, unique atmosphere that's different from your typical restaurant and adds to the overall experience. I'd definitely eat here again because the food was so good. I'd just make a reservation next time and plan on not being in a hurry.

So close and yet so far…read more.. I guess I am spoiled having owned and operated several successful restaurants ( including a popular steak & prime rib house ), and owning a home in San Francisco where no doubt one can easily find amazing food served in amazing restaurants by classy staff who understand what delivering excellent service means... But, we do love our Laurel.....and I do love The Loft! Food gets 4 stars, atmosphere and "the experience" gets 2 stars... Tried The Loft last night for prime rib... 1. The cute as a button young hostess was chomping on her gum to the point it was annoying! Very sweet young lady, but chomping her gum with her mouth open as she talked, walked, sat you, etc. Issue number one here.... no manager on duty? No adult with a measure of class to advise her to spit out her gum.... and THIS is consistent with the tone of this rant & atmosphere..... her open mouth gum chomping is only a part of the issue at The Loft. 2. Prime rib meal was a great value and the quality of the meat appeared to be excellent. Correctly priced in my view! The portion was excellent. I ordered my cut medium-rare and it was served to me a perfect medium-rare..... but look at the photo I attached! Looks well done, huh? SEE ABOVE- my Prime Rib & Steak House did 5.5M a year in sales, we were experts at roasting high quality prime rib.... STOP DIPPING THE PRIME RIB IN AU JUS AS IT DOES TWO THINGS..... ONE, IT TOUGHENS THE MEAT AND TWO..... IT ELIMINATES THE BEAUTIFUL PINK/JUICY PRESENTATION OF A FRESHLY CUT SLICE OF MEAT. Do not make the same mistake that Hog Heaven makes... by cutting the prime rib in advance then storing it on a steam table.... need to slice prime rib "to order", and NEVER dip it in hot au jus as it toughens the meat and makes rare or medium-rare or medium meat look well done. Mt cut was on the tough side but only because I can tell the cook (sorry, not a chef ) dipped it in au jus to heat it up right before serving... it came out looking well done but it was in fact medium rare as ordered. The hot au jus toughened up the meat though, so you lose a few stars for that bad practice. SEE my other photo of my prime rib from my restaurant, never dipped in au jus, and look how nice and pink and juicy it is compared to what was served last night. At my steakhouse / prime rib restaurant I had a batch of baked potatoes coming out over the oven every 20 minutes during peak hours of operation to guarantee my patrons received a fresh and hot potato. Last night the server explained upon arrival to our table that the cook forgot to put in the potatoes so they may not have any in time for my dinner.... happily, by the time we were served the potatoes came out of the oven so mine was incredibly hot and fresh... and hopefully the owner reads this and adopts the "out of the oven every 20 minutes" practice. Reduces waste too... Salad was fresh and the portion size perfect... no complaints coming out of either end of me regarding the lettuce! :) Ok, now the bad part.... Turn up the air! Same complaint we had last year... the same complaint we heard from two tables near us..... your restaurant is TOO COLD and the icy air blows down on the hot food doing what? You guessed it.... making your food cold! No need to freeze your patrons... cool is ok, icy cold is not fun, not comfortable.... Your flatware, again.... is a joke. Come on... as I asked before... drive down to Hattiesburg and visit Longhorn and take note of their nice silverware and steak knives. SEE the photo? We are not prison inmates, this is not elementary school or a long-term care facility.... please provide your patrons with some decent, not cheap, flatware.... your choice of the cheapest flatware takes down your restaurants classy-level by 2 stars. Train your servers! Laurel is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to see the Home Town sites... and obviously many visit The Loft. One's impression of Laurel, in part, is formed by ones experience at each restaurant visited...yes we are small town, yes we are deep south... but lets train what class is! Please... Learn the wine menu, where each wine comes from, etc., and learn the stages of service that includes how to properly suggestive sell. Our server was great overall, but she did the usual " did you save any room for desert?" routine. To increase revenue, server quest check averages and tip averages, teach how to suggestive sell! After pre-bussing and then later removing dinner plates.... have them approach the table and say this... "I just tried our bread pudding and it was amazing! We make it fresh daily and the cheese cake too which, by the way, I had last night and it was incredible... can I bring you a slice? You're going to love it..." Is The Loft a nice place? Yes, but "nice" is relative... it's not "fancy nice". Lastly, men... take your hats off!

First the good. The 6 OZ filet mignon was cooked to perfection and was incredibly tender! Worth…read moreevery penny. The brussel sprouts side was undercooked but had good flavor. The chef needed to par boil until tender before cooling down... all this before hitting the deep fryer. Flavor was good, but tough and chewy. My 14 OZ Delmonico Ribeye was cooked a perfect medium-rare, had great flavor, and overall was a quality cut of beef. The garlic mashed potatoes were served hot and fluffy, but they were not a stand-out, just your average mashed potatoes. They were real, though... when others uses instant. Props for that. My seared green beans were hot and fresh and tasty and very good. Now the bad..... 1. I called hours in advance and asked about making a reservation and was advised that they don't take reservations. Wrong answer.... yes they do. We waited for about 20 minutes but were in no rush, but we observed a few other couples announcing they had a reservation and they were seated ahead of us..... so whomever answered the phone and advised that Edgers does not take reservations,,,,,, yes you do! 2. Service was fast but not good. The server did not come around to offer re-fills on our very empty beverage glasses.... and she brought the dinner rolls well after dinner had started as she admitted she forgot. She did not suggestive sell a desert and instead just brought us our check. 3. There is no music and the dining room is loud because you sit on top of a concrete floor with chipped paint everywhere.... cheap and nasty looking, not worthy of a steakhouse. The cheap turquoise curtains dragging on the floor covering the metal blinds are tacky at best. The hostess station is pure 1971, needs ripped out. 4. The décor was horrendous. They advise "casual country club attire", which is very funny as many, ahem, "gentleman" in the dining room had on various baseball caps... one guy was in flip-flops... and this place is not even in the same county as anything close to a country club vibe.... 5. While they do have cloth table cloths and napkins, sitting in this very poorly decorated and run down less than cafeteria atmosphere reminded me of sitting in the middle of a 1970s funeral parlor show room. I was looking for a casket with a dead guy laying in it.... 6. Presentation needs a complete revamp! No water served, no garnish of any kind, really nothing "nice" about this place except for the funeral flowers sitting in the middle of the converted garage, I mean dining room.... Great food. Quality food. Service provided by staff who would not know how to do a wine service, a staff who are very nice people, but a staff who have never eaten in a fancy restaurant in a first-class city like New York, Boston or San Francisco... foodie environments. Is this a prom date destination? NO Is this a place to impress your date? NO Is this a place to have a business dinner with a new or perspective client? H&%$ NO Is this a place that is no frills with decent food? Sure.... go for the steaks but nothing else....

This is a very nice, very reasonably priced local steakhouse with excellent service. The decor…read moreneeds updating, but you can't fault the cooking. We had the spinach salad - not to be missed - and the Delmonico steak. Both were great. At brunch the spinach salad isn't on the menu but you can still order it. This place is also very generous with fresh bacon bits - loaded baked potato, spinach salad, whatever. You won't go bacon deprived. Recommended.

We went for lunch - Our server was so sweet and friendly…read more The chicken salad in a pineapple boat was delicious and served with fruit. I would definitely order that again. We shared beignets- save room! They're amazing!!

2nd visit but this time for dinner. Had really enjoyed lunch previously, but dinner was a bit of a…read moreletdown. Brother was underwhelmed by his Cuban sandwich, sister-in-law thought the texture of the shrimp in the bisque was a bit squishy, though she liked the flavor. My problem is with bragging about your house burger grind but not allowing it to be cooked less than medium-well. It's like putting a governor on a Ferrari. Slightly harried service because they were busy but she was a trooper.

Stopped by for a ribeye sandwich. The staff is very nice. They were grilling them up on the patio…read more It was delicious! We looked around while there and the food all looked so good...from bacon wrapped asparagus to boudin stuffed chicken or pineapple stuffed pork chops! I will absolutely come back to pick something up to throw on the grill.

What a great find, when we drive through Lauren after we heard about this HGTV town from a few of…read moreour colleagues. We drove around a bit and decided to explore downtown for a moment. When we walked by the smell, or better said the aroma caught our attention. We had to walk in. This is a place for meat lovers. The butcher dog is delicious and you can tell it's not processed like you're ordinary ...dog. So good! The beef jerky I took back home to CT, and it was gone within a week, so good. Wish I had bought more, but you can order online. Owners are super kind, and friendly. I believe good things are coming their way, cause it looks like they are expanding. So if you visit Lauren, visit The Knight Butcher as well, they won't disappoint.

We received a friendly greeting, we're seated promptly, and a server came to our table within a…read moreminute of being seated.

Our server was prompt and sweet. The food was really yummy and the restaurant was clean. It was…read moreattached to a really great antique store through a hallway by the restrooms! The hush puppies and cheese appetizer was super yummy! Great portions!

Great home cooked foods. Best breakfast in Laurel. Lunch is terrific too with daily blue plate…read morespecials.

Awesome food. Always a crowd pleaser! Great southern hospitality and good home cooking. Servers…read moreare quick, dining area is clean! Food is delicious. Ate here about 5 years ago and just as delicious today! Clean plate club!

Went there on a Saturday afternoon. Only a dozen or so tables or booths occupied. The place is…read moreclean and comfortable with Mexican music playing at a low level. Service was prompt and courteous and the food came out quickly and was tasty. The only disappointment was the margarita. When we ordered the drinks we were not asked about size or liquor so I assume we received the standard house margarita which came in a 16oz Modelo cup. The taste was fine except the tequila was barely detectable. The most disappointing thing about the drink came when we received the bill... $13.75 !!! per drink. This is by far the worst deal in Laurel. We have been to all the Mexican restaurants and never paid anywhere near that for a 16oz house margarita. If you go here, enjoy the food and service but forget the margaritas.

The service was absolute s*** they had plenty of spots open. Plenty of tables open and said they…read morewere not setting anybody else because of people graduating. Hire some more employees....

I ordered the days special, chicken salad and tomato bisque…read moresoup. I was surprised the sandwich had nuts in it, considering all the issues around nut allergies. I would have liked to known that before ordering. My husband did change his order to another menu item. The quality of food was good and I felt appreciated for our business .

We were in town for a little day getaway and had our dog with us so we decided to have lunch at…read moreBird Dog Café because they have outdoor seating. There was some kind of street fair going on, so we parked in the back and walked in from the back door. It was a little confusing, but we four a very sweet server who showed us where to sit. I think her name was Lincoln and she was very sweet. The outdoor area was a little messy, but no big deal. The food was okay. I had a French burger that was a little flat tasting. My husband had the French dip. Again, it was just okay. Cocktails were pretty good. Based on that alone I probably wouldn't go back, but we were limited on choices due to having our dog with us. Here's where it took a turn. We went to our car and there was a very nasty note telling us, "The next time you park here you will be towed." It directed us to go inside to get someone to move their car which was blocking us in. We didn't see any other parking lot and there weren't any no parking signs. I went inside and found our waitress who gave the note to a woman sitting at the bar with papers spread out in front of her. I assume she was the manager or owner. She didn't say a word and sent the waitress to move her car. All of the sudden our sweet server wasn't so sweet. Come to find out, the parking lot entrance was on the side where the street fair was and we couldn't see it. I think that is a pretty nasty way to treat customers. I don't recommend this place at all.

Have been here many times and never disappointed with their food or service. My favorite are the…read moreribs and brisket, both are some of the best I've ever had(I've traveled to thru many states and a few countries to know what I like. Dang meat just falls off the bone. Wife loves the brisket, chicken (especially both on their huge salads. Their burgers are tasty and huge. The people there are so friendly and incredibly patient and helpful. For those that can't stay and eat, they do have a drive through that allows you the opportunity to enjoy great food.

This is the best BBQ in Laurel, MS while it isn't really my favorite brisket it is better than most…read moreof the other options. The best brisket in the area I've had so far is at Swamp Shack BBQ a short distance away in Ellisville, MS. They seem to often be out of things here and then they have "specials" that they are also often out of which seems to indicate they are very busy usually. This place is definitely VERY popular in the area and it tends to be VERY crowded. They sometimes serve you really huge portions and other times smaller portions. I'm a big fan of Texas style BBQ which the brisket here doesn't seem to resemble the brisket I've had in Texas. Overall it is the best BBQ in Laurel, MS and they do have a cool space which is decorated with all sorts of bling bling inside.

This was a terrific surprise. We were passing through and were hungry for pizza. We considered a…read morePizza Hut nearby, but then H&H was recommended to us. Turned out to be awesome, so I am passing the recommendation along. From the outside it looks like the last place you would go for pizza. It's in an old historic building in downtown Ellisville. But don't judge a book by the cover. They have a number of unique, creative pizzas in addition to the usual toppings and stuff. I took a chance on a "Paul Deen" pizza with pimento cheese and bacon and it was pretty good. My wife had a burger that she thoroughly enjoyed. The flash-fried brussels sprouts appetizer was very good as well. Our server Adysin was super friendly and answered all of our out-of-towner questions. Everyone was welcoming and nice. I would not hesitate to go again. Highly recommended. Check it out for yourself.

Great staff Good food but skip the onion rings. Had the…read morehamburger with bacon. Perfect.